Page:A descriptive catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum.djvu/15

 INTRODUCTION. VII

bis position, and if it is known, which is not always the case, though sometimes it is purposely withheld, and for various reasons ; the donor being often the one who made the post- mortem examination, and not the one in whose practice the case occurred, and whose interest in it has not always disposed him to take any trouble in regard to the specimen. When the donor prepared the specimen, the fact has been or should be recorded. Many of the donors, and some of the best friends of the Museum, are now not living ; but with a few exceptions, this does not appear. The specimens that are displayed in the cases are, of course, numbered to correspond with the descrip- tive catalogue ; and a memorandum is kept of those that are preserved together, in spirit, and in the numbered jars. The specimens, also, as they have been entered in the catalogue, have been arranged according to a certain system, and briefly enumerated, with a repetition of the numbers and of the names of the donors.

The present volume has reached a most unexpected size, and would have been still larger if it had been as openly spaced throughout as it was at first. Figures, however, and other inelegant abbreviations are often used, for the sake of brevity ; and much is generally left to be inferred in regard to the specimens, as the mode of preparation, the exhibition of certain parts, the fact that the history of a case was wholly or partially unknown, and generally the fact that a specimen was from the dissecting room. The date of the donation being given at the end of each case, the year is sometimes not referred to in the record, when the case was of short duration ; and, if very short, the days of the week only are sometimes mentioned. In printed catalogues, generally, the different series or divisions are designated by letters, and separately numbered ; but it seems to be more convenient for reference, to number the specimens regularly onward, and from first to last.

Besides -the formal collection, there is another that consists mostly of indifferent specimens, and of what may be called duplicates ; and they are very generally preserved in spirit. These amount altogether to two hundred and seventy-two ; and fifty-eight of them belonged to Dr. Warren's original collec- tion. They are all entered in a second and separate catalogue,

�� �